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Logical Duals in Software Engineering

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logical-duals-in-software-engineering/

Published: August 27, 2025 19:25

(Last week's newsletter took too long and I'm way behind on Logic for Programmers revisions so short one this time.1) In classical logic, two operators F/G are duals if F(x) = !G(!x). Three examples: x || y is the same as !(!x && !y). <>P ("P is possibly…

Sapir-Whorf does not apply to Programming Languages

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/sapir-whorf-does-not-apply-to-programming/

Published: August 21, 2025 13:00

This one is a hot mess but it's too late in the week to start over. Oh well! Someone recognized me at last week's Chipy and asked for my opinion on Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in programming languages. I thought this was interesting enough to make a newsletter.…

Software books I wish I could read

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/software-books-i-wish-i-could-read/

Published: August 6, 2025 13:00

New Logic for Programmers Release! v0.11 is now available! This is over 20% longer than v0.10, with a new chapter on code proofs, three chapter overhauls, and more! Full release notes here. Software books I wish I could read I'm writing Logic for…

2000 words about arrays and tables

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/2000-words-about-arrays-and-tables/

Published: July 30, 2025 13:00

I'm way too discombobulated from getting next month's release of Logic for Programmers ready, so I'm pulling a idea from the slush pile. Basically I wanted to come up with a mental model of arrays as a concept that explained APL-style multidimensional…

Programming Language Escape Hatches

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/programming-language-escape-hatches/

Published: July 24, 2025 14:00

The excellent-but-defunct blog Programming in the 21st Century defines "puzzle languages" as languages were part of the appeal is in figuring out how to express a program idiomatically, like a puzzle. As examples, he lists Haskell, Erlang, and J. All…

Maybe writing speed actually is a bottleneck for programming

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/maybe-writing-speed-actually-is-a-bottleneck-for/

Published: July 17, 2025 19:08

I'm a big (neo)vim buff. My config is over 1500 lines and I regularly write new scripts. I recently ported my neovim config to a new laptop. Before then, I was using VSCode to write, and when I switched back I immediately saw a big gain in productivity.…

Logic for Programmers Turns One

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logic-for-programmers-turns-one/

Published: July 8, 2025 18:18

I released Logic for Programmers exactly one year ago today. It feels weird to celebrate the anniversary of something that isn't 1.0 yet, but software projects have a proud tradition of celebrating a dozen anniversaries before 1.0. I wanted to share about…

Logical Quantifiers in Software

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/logical-quantifiers-in-software/

Published: July 2, 2025 19:44

I realize that for all I've talked about Logic for Programmers in this newsletter, I never once explained basic logical quantifiers. They're both simple and incredibly useful, so let's do that this week! Sets and quantifiers A set is a collection of…

You can cheat a test suite with a big enough polynomial

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/you-can-cheat-a-test-suite-with-a-big-enough/

Published: June 24, 2025 16:27

Hi nerds, I'm back from Systems Distributed! I'd heartily recommend it, wildest conference I've been to in years. I have a lot of work to catch up on, so this will be a short newsletter. In an earlier version of my talk, I had a gag about unit tests. First…

Solving LinkedIn Queens with SMT

https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/solving-linkedin-queens-with-smt/

Published: June 12, 2025 15:43

No newsletter next week I’ll be speaking at Systems Distributed. My talk isn't close to done yet, which is why this newsletter is both late and short. Solving LinkedIn Queens in SMT The article Modern SAT solvers: fast, neat and underused claims that SAT…